With the news that Zahra Ahmadi is quitting, can Eastenders drag itself out of the hole its dug for itself?

For any actor/actress to quit so publicly has to be the ultimate embarrassment for a TV show, but for it to be a good actress with huge potential, the embarrassment must be 10 fold.

Eastenders has gone down the sex and sensationalism route which was only ever going to lead to its downfall. Sensationalism brings in viewers for one or two episodes but not long term viewers, while sex brings in the tweenies who think its cool to sleep around.

You only have to look at Max to see how they are scraping the bottom of the barrel, they have tried to turn a serial adulterer, dropout father, hated son and sibling into some sort of victim And the youngsters who watch the show fall for it, because they have no experience of life.

They've put all their eggs in two baskets by shunning the rest of the cast for the majority of the time and focusing purely on the Mitchells and the Brannings. Even the Beales have had little airtime in comparison to these families, and when other families are portrayed the Brannings ans Mitchells manage to get in on the scenes as well.

The writing staff as obviously not up to the task because they cannot think up any stories for the characters, Honey and Yolande for example. There are hundreds of storylines these two could take, but the writers are so poor instead they are axed!

I really think Eastenders is coming to the end of its days, maybe not this year but I cant see the BBC pouring good money after bad for that much longer.

I couldn't agree more with what you said about Max. I'm hoping the writers are staging a huge bluff here, because if it turns out that Max ultimately wins this war and banishes Jack I think I'll give up altogether. Not that I'm a big fan of Jack, but to portray Max as some kind of innocent victim (and to have so many thickos cheering Max on) really is playing to the LCD.

I wasn't a big fan of Shabnam as I said elsewhere but I do appreciate the actress's gesture in sticking two fingers up to a team of writers who can't see beyond the Beales, Brannings and Mitchells.